Vuelta a Espana Preview

Summer may be drawing to a close already, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t more road racing to watch before the end of the year. The final Grand Tour of the year, the 75th Vuelta a Espana, kicks off this Saturday, August 28, in Seville, Spain. Even though we’ve already seen the chaos of the Giro d’Italia, where Ivan Basso capped his suspension comeback with a hard-fought victory, and the pageantry of the Tour de France, where Alberto Contador defended his crown (somewhat controversially) in a battle with Andy Schleck, this year’s Vuelta promises more cycling excitement. And in great news for racing fans, this year’s edition will again be covered, wire-to-wire, by Universal Sports (which is available over-the-air or on cable in many places, plus Vuelta coverage can be purchased for online access anywhere).

In terms of the course itself, there will be 21 stages covering 3,352 km. While the mountains may not be as famous as those of the Tour de France, or as fearsome as the Giro d’Italia, there will still be plenty of hard racing ahead for the Vuelta riders. If the race is still close near the very end look for fireworks on the next-to-last stage, which features a dramatic mountaintop finish on la Bola del Mundo (where the last 3km are on a rough concrete road with an average grade of 12.5 percent, so steep and narrow that team mechanics will be forced to ride on motorcycles with spare wheels and bikes like the Plan des Corones climb in the Giro!) And if all of that is not enough, the Vuelta leader’s jersey will also be brand new this year… well, actually the new jersey looks kind of odd, but we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt for now.

At any rate, we should be in for a good show, so will you be watching?